2009-10-12 Monday
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Marting Van Buren bought this house in 1839. He lost the election
in the following year and retired to this house. It had some indoor
plumbing and an indoor loo.

Martin Van Buren [5145]

Marting Van Buren's Library [5166]

Sink [5159]

Bathtub [5169]

Loo [5170]

Front of the House [5175]

2009-10-11 SundayAlbany, NY.
Here is a picture of the State Capitol building in Albany, NY taken from our hotel window at night. The New York state capitol building is very impressive.

2009-10-13
Scranton,PA
Steamtown, USA - a national historic site
run by the United States Park Service

Steamtown is on the old yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
railroad, one of the Antricite railroads of Pennsylvania. The site
exists to preserve the history of steam locomotives. There are quite
a few locomotives in the "boneyard" [outside and unmaintained]. Most
have been painted to prevent further deterioration. My favorite
locomotive is there also -- the Union Pacific Big Boy, the large
locomotive ever built in America. Below is a picture of the Big Boy.

[5300]

We went on a 1 hour walking tour of the railroad shops and found the
employees (US Government Employees) at work restoring a locomotive.
They were in the process of rebuiling a boiler. To do that they needed
to install 1260 bolts across the surface of the boiler. Once installed
they all have to be squashed smooth. The bolt is about 1 inch in
diameter and sticks out 3/8 of an inch. One of the men takes an air jack
hammer and beat to the bold until it is almost flush with the surface
and smooth. It takes about 8 minutes per bolt. With 1260 bolts and two
sides of each bolt, we're talking 2520 installations of 8 minutes of
work each. That means 350 or so continuous hours of work just to
reconstruct the boiler.

You can see a picture of one man using the jack hammer to smash the

bolts down to almost flush below. [5237]

The Lackawanna yards had a round house and Steamtown is now housed in

the restored round house shown here: [5272]

Here is a picture of the Boneyards. Some of this equiptment needs to be

painted soon. [5315].

New England Long Houses.

2009-10-05 (Monday)

See also Merb's blog of the same trip at:

http://fallodyssey.blogspot.com/

First is a long house taken on Tuesday. It can be seen in a single picture.

The second is taken in 4 pictures.

We're not sure why houses in New England are longer
than in other parts of the country, but this is an example of one that
is very long. I couldn't get back far enough to take it on shot.  


This one is on Harbor Road near the Old Course Saco River.

Reflections #1 Old Course Saco River

2009-10-05 (Monday)

Avoiding the Fryeburg Fair in Maine, we went up West Side Road
along the Old Course Saco River. We found a site

[Latitude/Longitude: N44° 4.3544', W70° 58.3455']

where the stream was still and the sun was out.

We took a number of pictures of the color reflecting
in the quiet river.

Reflections #2

2009-10-06

Mt. Washington Auto road entrance had a small pond nearby.

The water was still and the trees surrounding the north eastern
side of the pond were well aligned for these pictures of the trees
and the reflections in the pond.

4 masted schooner in port at Bar Harbor